They were lost and unable to move on a mountain, with their description of location nowhere near their actual point

Two missing walkers were 10 miles from where they thought they were rescuers said.

Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team (ASART) were alerted to the pair, a man and woman in their early 20s, at about 4.30pm who said they were lost and unable to move on a mountain a mile from Llanbrynmair in Powys.

It was the first of three calls by the student group from Manchester Metropolitan University.

The group, including students from Spain, Germany and Canada, had already walked 15km when two students became too tired to continue.

The group split up, the two exhausted walkers remained on the north side of the mountain, the group leader set off to get help and the remaining four were given instructions to walk south towards a road and seek help.

Team spokesman Graham O’Hanlon said the verbal description of the first pair’s position did not match the map and so SARLOC was used to establish an accurate position.

“The resulting grid-reference placed the casualties more than 17 km from their reported location, near Pumlumon Fawr, Ceredigion,” he said.

ASART volunteers were joined by about 40 colleagues from Brecon, Central Beacons and Longtown Mountain Rescue Teams in the rescue operation.

After pinpointing the pair’s position they were able to make their way directly to the remote spot. Both were found to be extremely cold and were treated for the effects of hypothermia.

The man was able to walk off the hill but his companion was evacuated by stretcher.

Dave Coombs, from Brecon Mountain Rescue Team, and incident manager, said: “She was treated by the Brecon MRT doctor who said that if she had been on the hillside for another hour, the outcome may have been different.”

In the meantime, the solo member of the party had turned up in Hafren Forest, some 6km away but the other four women from the group were unaccounted for.

Mr O’Hanlon added: “They had apparently intended to head due-south to meet the main road, but it was suggested they had neither map, compass nor lights. “Other search parties started sweeping this area while the stretcher party was busy with the evacuations. The poor weather conditions meant that helicopter assistance was not available.

“We only had sketchy information on their location and the phone signal in the area was poor, making contact with them virtually impossible. Also they had no torches, whistles or map and compass and were unfamiliar with the terrain.”

The missing women, two from Spain, one from Germany and Canada were found at 1:30am by an Aberdyfi search party. They were cold but otherwise in good spirits. They were given warm clothes, walked off the mountain and then reunited with the rest of their group by 3am.

Mr O’Hanlon said: “This is another reminder that people should make sure they are properly equipped and skilled before heading for the mountains.

“If the vagaries of phone coverage had meant SARLOC could not be deployed, then we would have started our search in completely the wrong place, and it is unlikely we would have reached the casualties before the effects of poor weather overtook them."

Two missing walkers were 10 miles from where they thought they were rescuers said.

Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team (ASART) were alerted to the pair, a man and woman from a Manchester walking club, who were lost and unable to move on a mountain a mile from Llanbrynmair in Powys.

Team spokesman Graham O’Hanlon said the verbal description of their position did not match the map and so SARLOC was used to establish an accurate position.

“The resulting grid-reference placed the casualties more than 17 km from their reported location, near Pumlumon Fawr, Ceredigion,” he said.

ASART volunteers, along with colleagues from Brecon, Central Beacons and Longtown Mountain Rescue Teams, made their way to the remote spot.

Both were extremely cold, and were treated for the effects of hypothermia.

The man was able to walk off the hill but his companion was evacuated by stretcher.

In the meantime, another member of the party had turned up in Hafren Forest, some 6km away and another four women from the party were unaccounted for.

“They had apparently intended to head due-south to meet the main road, but it was suggested they had neither map, compass nor lights.

“Other search parties started sweeping this area while the stretcher party was busy with the evacuations. The poor weather conditions meant that helicopter assistance was not available,” he said

The missing women were found at 1:30am by a search party. They were described as “cold but in reasonably good spirits” and were able to walk to the team’s vehicles by 3am.

“This is another reminder that people should make sure they are properly equipped and skilled before heading for the mountains.

“If the vagaries of phone coverage had meant SARLOC could not be deployed, then we would have started our search in completely the wrong place, and it is unlikely we would have reached the casualties before the effects of poor weather overtook them,” Mr O’Hanlon said

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Mark Thoma

Liverpool-born Mark joined the Daily Post in January 2014 after seven years as editor of its Merseyside sister title the Liverpool Post. He started out as a weekly news reporter on Wirral Newspapers, and spent seven years at the Daily Post and Liverpool Echo. He was The Press Association's regional correspondent for North Wales, Merseyside and Cheshire from 1983 to 1997, before returning to the ECHO as deputy news editor. He has won a number of journalism awards, including the UK Press Gazzette Regional Reporter of the Year award, and in 1993 wrote a book on the James Bulger murder.